Gardiner was a good scholar and a good man, but decidedly testy and
choleric; in politics he was that somewhat abnormal creature, a
Hanoverian Tory, and succeeded in earning the dislike of both parties.
He was the Vice-Chancellor who deprived Hearne of his place in the
Bodleian for Jacobitism, yet he also fought a furious battle with
Wake, the Whig Archbishop, who was his Visitor. With a large faction
of the Fellows he had equally numerous passages of arms, yet still the
College flourished under him. It was in his time that the great back
quadrangle, the new Hall, and the new Warden’s lodgings, were built.
These spacious buildings were erected not with College money, but by
generous and long-continued benefactions from the Fellows. Dr. Clarke,
the Secretary of War, was the chief donor: “God send us many such
ample benefactors” wrote his grateful Warden in the College book. He
built the Warden’s lodgings out of his own pocket, besides paying for
the “restoration” of the east end of the chapel. This consisted in
painting over Streater’s bad fresco[195] a much better production by
Sir James Thornhill--the somewhat heathenish but spirited Apotheosis
of Chichele--which was taken down in our own generation. Below the
fresco were placed two marble pillars, supporting an entablature, which
framed Raphael Mengs’ pleasing “_Noli me tangere_,” the picture which
now adorns the ante-chapel. After Clarke the most generous donors were
Sir Nathaniel Lloyd, who gave £1350 in all; Mr. Greville, who built the
new cloister; and General Stuart. Hawkesmoor, Wren’s favourite pupil,
was their architect; it is to him that we owe the strange but not
ineffective twin-towers, the classic cloister, the vaulted buttery, and
the lofty hall with its bare mullionless windows.
But there was one Fellow in the reign of Anne who was even a greater
benefactor than Clarke and Lloyd. It was to Christopher Codrington
that the College owes the magnificent library, which so far surpasses
all its rivals in the University, save the Bodleian alone. Codrington
was a kind of Admirable Creighton, poet and soldier, bibliophile and
statesman. In the same year he gained military promotion for his
gallantry at the siege of Namur, welcomed William III. to Oxford in
a speech whose elegant Latinity softened even Jacobite critics, and
undertook the government of the English West India Islands. He died at
Barbadoes in 1710, and left to his well-loved College 12,000 books,
valued at £6000, with a legacy of £10,000 to build a fit edifice to
hold them, and a fund to maintain it. The Codrington Library, commenced
in 1716, took many years to build, but at last stood completed, a
far more successful work than the hall which faces it across the
quadrangle. It is 200 feet long, and holds with ease the 70,000 books
to which the College library has now swollen. A public reading-room was
added to it in 1867, and it is for students of law and history as much
of an institution as the Bodleian itself.
The eighteenth century gave All Souls many brilliant Fellows, but it
destroyed the original purpose of the foundation, and ended by making
it an abuse and a byword. It is only necessary to mention the names of
a few of its members, to show how large a share of the great men of the
time passed through the College. It claims the great Blackstone--for
many years an indefatigable bursar--the second name to Wren among the
list of Fellows. Two Lord Chancellors came from it, Lord Talbot of
Hensoll, and Lord Northington; Young the poet was a resident for many
years; one Archbishop, Vernon Harcourt of York, and eight Bishops
had been Fellows. With them, though elected in the opening years of
the present century, must be mentioned Reginald Heber, the first and
greatest of our missionary prelates.
But in spite of these great names, the College--like the whole
University--was in a bad way. Two abuses destroyed its usefulness. The
first was the introduction of non-residence. Down to the reign of Anne,
a Fellow who left Oxford without the _animus revertendi_, forfeited
his Fellowship. Every one quitting the College, even for a few months,
had to obtain a temporary leave of absence, and to state his intention
to return. Gradually Fellows began to devise ingenious excuses for
prolonged non-residence; the favourite ones were that they were about
to study physic, and must therefore travel; or that they were in the
service of the Crown, and must be excused on public grounds. The test
case on which the battle was finally fought out was that of Blencowe,
a Fellow who had become “Decypherer to the Queen” (interpreter of the
cyphers so much used in despatches at that time). Warden Gardiner
strove to make him resign, but Blencowe moved Sunderland, the Secretary
of State, to interfere in his behalf with the Visitor, and it was
formally ruled that his service with the Crown excused him from
residence, as well as from his obligation under the statutes to take
orders. For the future the Fellows all found some excuse--taking out a
commission in the militia was the favourite one--for saying that they
were in the royal service, and thereby excused from residence. From
about 1720 the number of residents goes down gradually from twenty or
thirty to six or seven. The remainder of the Fellows, like Gibbon’s
enemies at Magdalen, remembered to draw their emoluments, but forgot
their statutory obligations.
Almost as injurious as the exemption from residence was the
introduction of a new theory that Founder’s-kin candidates had an
absolute preference over all others. Archbishop Wake is responsible for
its recognition: a certain Robert Wood, in 1718, claimed to be elected
simply on account of his birth, and the Visitor ruled that he must be
admitted, in spite of the custom of the College, which had never before
taken account of such a right. At first the Founder’s-kin appeared in
small numbers--there are only twelve between 1700 and 1750--but about
the middle of the century they appear to have suddenly woken up to the
advantages of obtaining a Fellowship without condition or examination.
Between 1757 and 1777 thirty-nine Fellows out of fifty-eight elected
are set down as _cons. fund._ in the College books. Archbishop
Cornwallis in 1777 ruled that it was not obligatory upon the College
that more than ten of the Fellows should be of Founder’s kin, and from
this time forth the claim of Founder’s kin had no direct influence
upon the elections. But the doctrine had done its work. It brought the
Fellowships within a charmed circle of county families, outside of
which the College rarely looked when the morrow of All Souls Day came
round.
The effect of this was to create a society of an abnormal sort in the
midst of a group of Colleges which, whatever their shortcomings may
have been, continued to make a profession of study and teaching. The
Fellows were men of good birth, and usually of good private means.
Hence came the well-known joke that they were required to be “bene
nati, bene vestiti, et moderate docti,” a saying formed, as Professor
Burrows has pointed out, by ingeniously twisting the three clauses
in the statutes which bade them be “de legitimo matrimonio nati,”
“vestiti sicut eorum honestati convenit clericali,” and “in plano cantu
competenter docti.”
The Fellows had no educational duties or emoluments, and consequently
no inducement to reside except for purposes of study: and for the
most part they were not studious, nor resident. The Fellowships
were poor, and so were only attractive to men of means. Hence the
management of the College property was a matter of indifference, and
it was neglected. Other Colleges no doubt neglected their duties and
mismanaged their properties, but All Souls men took a pride in having
no duties and in being indifferent to the income arising from their
estates. Gradually the College drew more and more apart from its
neighbours, until the Fellows made it a point to know nothing and to
care nothing about the teaching, the study, or the business that was
going on just outside their walls.
Yet a period during which Blackstone, Heber, and the present Prime
Minister were numbered among the Fellows, cannot be said to be
undistinguished in the history of the College; and this system,
indefensible in itself, has handed down some things which the present
generation would not be willing to lose. This College, which had become
somewhat of a family party, was animated by a peculiarly strong feeling
of corporate loyalty. And throughout the change and stir of the last
forty years, and in the new and many-sided development of the College,
the close tie which binds the Fellow, wherever he may be, to the
College has never been weakened. And as the College has come back to an
intimate connection with the life of the University, its non-resident
element is not without value. The lawyer, the member of Parliament,
the diplomatist, and the civil servant, no longer disregarding the
University and its pursuits, are an element of great value in a society
which is too apt to be engrossed in the details of teaching and of
examinations.
The University Commission of 1854 swept away the rights of Founder’s
kin together with many other provisions of the Statutes of Chichele,
appropriated ten Fellowships to the endowment of Chairs of Modern
History and International Law, and threw open the rest to competition
in the subjects of Law and Modern History. The Commission of 1877
threatened graver changes, and for a while it was doubtful whether
All Souls might not become an undergraduate College of the ordinary
type. But in the end the College was allowed to retain, by means of
non-resident Fellowships, its old connection with the world outside,
while in other ways its endowments were utilized for study and
teaching. On the whole it cannot be said to have suffered more than
others from the want of constructive genius in the Commissioners.
It is and will be a College of many Fellows and several Professors,
with liabilities to contribute annual sums to Bodley’s Library and to
undergraduate education. The Fellowships are terminable in seven years,
but may be renewed in limited numbers and on a reduced emolument.
Under these new conditions All Souls--though still somewhat scantily
inhabited--is no longer given over during a great part of each year
to the bats and owls. It now plays a useful and important part in the
University. Its Hall and lecture-rooms are crowded with undergraduates,
its reading-room is full of students of law and history, and its Warden
and Fellows have produced in the last ten years about twice as many
books as any two other Colleges in the University put together. Last,
but not least, it has continued most loyally to fulfil its obligation
of providing prize Fellowships; no other foundation can say, though
several are far richer than All Souls, that it has regularly offered
Fellowships for competition for twenty consecutive years.
X.
MAGDALEN COLLEGE.
BY THE REV. H. A. WILSON, M.A., FELLOW OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE.
In the cloisters of Magdalen College, over one of the arches of the
“Founder’s Tower,” there is to be seen a heraldic rose surmounting
the armorial bearings common to the kings of the rival Houses of York
and Lancaster. The rose itself, apparently once red and afterwards
painted white, is a curiously significant memorial of the civil strife
which affected the early fortunes of the College, and of animosities
which were perhaps still too keen, when Waynflete’s tower was built,
to allow the Red Rose to appear even as a witness to the fact that his
foundation had its beginning under a Lancastrian king.
It was in the reign and under the patronage of Henry VI. that the
founder himself rose to his greatness. Of his early life little is
known with any certainty. His father, Richard Patten or Barbour, was
apparently a man of good descent and position.[196] His mother Margery
was a daughter of Sir William Brereton, a Cheshire gentleman who had
received knighthood for his military services in France. His change of
surname was probably made at the time of his ordination as sub-deacon
in 1421. That which he adopted was derived from his birthplace, a town
on the coast of Lincolnshire. He is sometimes said to have received his
education at one or both of the “two St. Mary Winton Colleges,” but
of this there is no evidence, and we know nothing of his University
career except the fact that he proceeded to the degree of Master of
Arts. He must have been still a young man when he was appointed in 1428
to the mastership of the school at Winchester, where he also received,
from Cardinal Beaufort, the mastership of a Hospital dedicated to St.
Mary Magdalen. To his connection with this foundation we may perhaps
trace his especial devotion to its patron Saint, and the consequent
dedication of St. Mary Magdalen College. In 1440, Henry VI. visited
Winchester to gather hints for his scheme for Eton College, and invited
Waynflete to become the first master of the school which formed part
of his new foundation. He also made him one of the original body of
Fellows of Eton, and a few years later promoted him to be Provost. It
was most probably at this time, and to commemorate his connection with
Eton, that Waynflete augmented his family arms by the addition of the
three lilies which appear, with a difference of arrangement, on the
arms of Eton College, and on those which Magdalen College derives from
its founder.
In 1447, the See of Winchester became vacant by the death of Cardinal
Beaufort, and the King at once recommended William Waynflete for
election. He was elected within a few days, and was consecrated at Eton
on the 13th July of the same year. Immediately after his elevation
to the Episcopate, he seems to have set himself to promote the
interests of learning, and to provide for a need which his experience
as a schoolmaster had impressed upon his mind, by a foundation in
the University of Oxford. Early in 1448, before his enthronement
at Winchester, he obtained from the King a license to found a Hall
for a President and fifty scholars, to be called St. Mary Magdalen
Hall.[197] At the same time he obtained, for a term of years, a
site and buildings which occupied the ground now covered by the new
Examination Schools, and in two or more of the halls included in this
property he placed his new society, of which he chose John Hornley
to be the first President. In 1456 Waynflete became Chancellor, and
on his elevation to that position he at once conceived the idea of
improving his foundation at Oxford, by converting it from a Hall into
a College, and by providing it with a better habitation and more ample
endowments. For this purpose, having obtained the necessary permission
from the King, he acquired for the Hall the buildings, site, and
property belonging to the ancient Hospital of St. John Baptist. The
property of the Hospital included the tenements which the members of
the Hall had until this time inhabited. The Hospital itself was a
non-academical institution, having for its purpose the care of pilgrims
and the relief of the poor.[198] It had been in existence before the
reign of John, from whom, while he was still known as Count of Mortain,
its Master and Brethren had received benefactions; and it had been
endowed, and perhaps refounded, by Henry III. The existing Master and
Brethren retired upon pensions, the poor inmates of the Hospital were
duly provided for, and the Hospital was united to the College, which
Waynflete founded by a charter of June 12th, 1458. The members of
the Hall, with the exception of Hornley, who retired to make way for
William Tybarde, the first President of the College, were transferred
to the new foundation, and the Hall ceased to exist.
The members of the College appear to have continued to occupy the
buildings formerly leased to the Hall, which had now become their
own property, until the Founder should carry out his intention of
providing new buildings on the site of the Hospital, and the land
adjoining it. The fulfilment of this intention was long deferred,
as were some of the plans upon which Waynflete now entered for
the increased endowment of his foundation. The troubles in which
the country was now for some years involved, and the change in
Waynflete’s own position, probably account for the delay. In 1460,
a few days before the battle of Northampton, Waynflete resigned the
Chancellorship, an act which seems to have brought him into discredit
with the Lancastrian party, though not with Henry himself. He does
not seem to have taken any active part in the events which followed,
on either side; but his sympathies appear to have been with the House
of Lancaster. We are told by one authority that he “was in great
dedignation with King Edward, and fled for fere of him into secrete
corners, but at last was restored to his goodes and the kinges favour.”
In 1469, when Edward’s power was fully established, a full pardon
for all offences, probable and improbable, was granted to Waynflete:
but some years earlier Edward had confirmed to him the charters
and privileges of his See, from which we may reasonably infer that
his period of hiding had not been very long. It was not, however,
till after the death of Henry VI. that the College began to resume
its prosperity, and the work of building was actually begun. The
foundation-stone of the chapel was laid in 1474; and in 1480, before
the building was actually finished, the President and scholars removed
from their temporary quarters, and occupied the College, using the
oratory of the Hospital for their place of worship until the chapel was
completed. The Vicar of St. Peter’s in the East, in which parish the
College was situated, gave up all claims to tithes and dues within its
precincts in consideration of a fixed annual payment, and the College
was transferred by the Bishop of Lincoln, with consent of the Dean and
Chapter, to the jurisdiction of the Bishops of Winchester, who were to
be also its Visitors.
The society had until this time possessed no body of statutes. Such
a code was now given by the founder, and a new President was also
appointed by him as successor to Tybarde, who was old and in failing
health. The person chosen for this office was Richard Mayew, of
New College, who took possession on August 23rd, 1480, and at once
proceeded to administer to the members of the College the oath
of obedience to the statutes. Ten of the thirty-six members, it
appears, at first refused compliance, and were for a time suspended,
by the founder’s command, from the benefits of the society. In the
following year Waynflete himself came to visit the College, and there
received the King, who came from Woodstock to Oxford to inspect the
new foundation, and passed the night within its walls. Some further
statutes, chiefly concerning elections and admissions, were issued
by the founder in 1482, in which year a large number of Fellows
and Demies[199] were formally admitted, and the society regularly
organized, though its numbers were not yet fixed. In 1483, Richard
III. visited the College, being received, as Edward had been, by the
founder, and disputations were held before him, at his desire, in the
College Hall, in one of which William Grocyn took part. At this time
the founder delivered to the College the whole body of the statutes
which he had framed, reserving to himself, however, the right to add to
them or revise them as he should see fit.
The regulations thus made for the government of the society, provided
that it should consist of a President, forty Fellows, thirty Demies,
four chaplains, eight clerks, sixteen choristers, a schoolmaster,
and an usher. The Fellows were to be chosen from certain counties
and dioceses; the Demies, in the first instance, from places where
the College had property bestowed by the founder or acquired in his
lifetime. The Demies were not to be less than twelve years of age at
the time of their election, and were not to retain their places after
reaching the age of twenty-five years. The system by which Demies
succeeded to vacant Fellowships was the growth of later custom, and was
not provided for by the statutes. The schoolmaster and usher were to
give instruction in grammar to the junior Demies, and to all others who
should resort to them. Provision was made for the teaching of moral and
of natural philosophy, and of theology, by the appointment of readers
in these subjects, whose lectures were to be open to all students,
whether members of the College or not. Besides the foundation members
of the College, the statutes allowed the admission of commoners of
noble family, whose numbers were not to exceed twenty, and who might be
allowed to live in the College at the charge of their relations. The
regulations as to the dress, conduct, and discipline of the College
were based upon those laid down in the statutes given by William of
Wykeham to New College, from which society a Fellow, or former Fellow,
might be chosen as President. Save for this exception, no one who had
not been a Fellow of Magdalen College was to be accounted eligible for
that office.
The endowments of the College, besides the property which was derived
from the Hospital of St. John Baptist, and that which had been
originally settled upon the Hall, consisted partly of lands acquired
by Waynflete for the purpose, partly of the endowments of other
foundations which were united or annexed to the College at different
times as the Hospital of St. John had been. These were the Hospital of
SS. John and James at Brackley in Northamptonshire, the Priory of Sele
in Sussex,[200] the Hospital of Aynho, a hospital or chantry at Romney,
the Chapel of St. Katharine at Wanborough, and the Priory of Selborne
in Hampshire.[201] An intended foundation at Caister in Norfolk, for
which Sir John Fastolf had provided by his will, was by Waynflete’s
influence diverted to augment the foundation of the College. The
Fellowships to be held by persons born in the dioceses of York and
Durham, or in the county of York, were partly provided for by special
benefactions from Thomas Ingledew, one of Waynflete’s chaplains, and by
John Forman, one of the Fellows of St. Mary Magdalen Hall.
Besides the endowments which Waynflete bestowed on his College during
his lifetime, he bequeathed to it by will all his manors, lands, and
tenements, with one exception; and he further recommended it to the
special care of his executors, directing that they should bestow upon
it a share of the residue of his estate.